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THE APPRECIATION OF ARCHITECTURE

THE APPRECIATION

HOW TO JUDGE ARCHITECTURE

BYRUSSELL STURGIS, A.M., Ph.D.

Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Member of

The Architectural League of New Tork, The National Sculpture Society, The National Society of Mural

Painters, etc., etc Author of "Dictionary of Architecture and Building," "European

Architecture," etc., etc.

FIFTH LDITION

NEW YORK:

UNION NOETH

hibkshtd, September, 1903

I EARLY GREEK DESIGN 11

II LATER GREEK AND ROMAN DESIGN 35

III EARLY MEDLEVAL DESIGN 66

IV CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL DESIGN 93

VI REVIVED CLASSIC DESIGN .131

VII LATER REVIVED CLASSIC DESIGN 143

VEIL EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DESIGN , 159

IX NINETEENTH CENTURY: IMITATIVE DESIGN 176

X, NINETEENTH CENTURY: ORIGINAL DESIGN 192

[5]

I Hexastyle Doric Temple, Paestum,

III Theseum(Theseion),Athens

" 24 Curvature of Stylobate of Parthe-

V Erechtheum(Erechtheion)Athens 36

VII Erechtheum 38 Details of Entablature, Acropolis,

CornerCapital,Acropolis,Athens " 38

Yin Temple of Athene Polias, Priene " 39

IX Restored Model of Pantheon

" 48

X Ruins of Temple of Castor and

49 Ruins of Temple of Mars Ultor,

XI Basilica of Maxentius and

" 54 XII.

Sculptured Details of Temple of

XIV Part of the BoundingWall of the

Forumof Nerva,Rome "

61

[7]

XV Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore,

XVI Interior of the Church of San

Min-iato, nearFlorence,Tuscany

**

73

XVII Church of Sant' Ambrogio, Milan " 76

XVIII Interior of Cathedral Tournai,

Church of St Martin(derGross S.

Martin) at Cologne, Khenish

XIX Church of the Holy Apostles,

Co-logne, Rhenish Prussia " 80

XX Cathedral of St Martin, Mainz

(Mayence) Hesse, Germany .

"

81

XXI Tower of Church of St Radegonde,

Poitiers, (Vienne) France

XXVI Chapelof Nancy, France * 91

XXVII Interior of Amiens Cathedral

*

98

XXVIII Cathedral at Reims(Marne)France,

Cathedral at Reims(Marne)France,

ChoirAisle,Different View "

XXXIV Cathedral at Peterbo^Northants,

XXXVII Church of Brou, at

Bourg-en-Bresse (Am), France

"

124

XXXVIII Church of Saint Wulfran ;

Abbe-ville (Somme), France

XLI South Porch, Albi (Tarn), France

"

128 XLII The Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence " 129 XLIII Chapel of the Pazzi, Church of

Santa Croce, Florence, Tuscany * 134

XLIV Palazzo Rucellai, Florence

"

135

XLV PalazzoStrozzi,Florence, Tuscany " 138

Palazzo Riccardi, Florence

" 138

XLVI. Courtyard of the Palazzo della

LIH Hall of Middle Temple, London " 152 LIV Church of the Theatiner Monks at

172

LVII Interior of St George's Church,

'Doncaster, Yorks, England -.

*

190 Exterior of Church of St George,

LXIV Building of 1ST Y Life Insurance

Co., St Paul, Minn, "

209

[10]

The Appreciation of Architecture

CHAPTER I

EABLY GKEEK DESIGN

IN trying to train the mind tojudge ofworks of architecture, one can neverbetoo

patient. It is very easy to hinder one'sgrowth in knowledge bybeing too ready to

decide The student of art who is much

under the influence of one teacher, one

writer, or one body of fellow-students, is

hampered by that influence just so far as

it is exclusive And most teachers, most

writers, most groups or classes of studentsare exclusive, admiring one set of princi-

ples or the practice of one epoch, to the

partial exclusion of others.

The reader must feel assured that there

are no authorities at all in the matter of

architectural appreciation : and that the

only opinions, or impressions, or

compara-[11]

tive appreciations that are worth anything

to him are those which he will form

gradu-ally for himself. He will form themslowly, if he be wise: indeed, if he have

will soon learn to form them slowly. He

formed; remembering that in a subject on which opinions differ so very widely atanyone time, and have differed so much morewidely if one epoch be compared with an-

other, there can be no such thing as a final

judgment

The object of this book is to help the

reader to acquire, little by little, such anindependent knowledge of the essential characteristics of good buildings, and also

such a sense of the possible differences of

opinion concerning inessentials, that he

will always enjoy the sight, the memory,

or the study of a noble structure withoutundue anxiety as to whether he is

Study Greek Architecture

of construction and design is to be able to

form your opinions for yourself; and to

understand that you come nearer, month

by month, to a really complete knowledge

of the subject, seeing clearly what is goodand thecauses of its goodness, and alsothenot-so-good which is there,inevitablythere,

as a part of the goodness itself.

It will be well, therefore, to take forour

about which there is the smallest difference

of opinion among modern lovers of art,

namely, the early Greek temples. There

is no serious dispute as to the standing of

the Greek architecture previousto the year

300 B. a, as the most perfect thing thatdecorative art1 has produced. If is ex-

tremely simple : a fact which makes it themore fit for our present purpose: but this

simplicity is to be taken as not having led

to bareness,lack ofincident, lackofcharm :

1 Decorative Art: Fine art which is applied to theing of that which has primarily a useful purpose Architecture

beautify-is the most complex of the decorativearts,and for this reason,

and hecanse it is also carried out on alarge scalewithgreat

possibilities of nobleeffects,the mostimportantof the tive arts.

decora-[13]

it has merely servedtogivetheGreek artist

such an easy control over the different

de-tails and theirorganization into a complete

whole, that the admiration of all

subse-quent ages has been given to his

produc-tions.

It must be noted, however, thainothing

of this complete beauty is now to be seenabove ground Plate"I shows the famous

temple at Psestum on the west coast of

Campania, southeast of Naples: the temple

called that of Poseidon, to which god

(called by the Eomans, Neptune) the

an-cient town which stood on this site was

dedicated This is the most nearly wellpreserved of the Doric

1

temples, with the

single exception of the small building in

Athens called the Theseion, or Theseum,

(seePlateIII)

;and it is largerand more teresting than that. Plate II gives the

in-Parthenon at Athens from the northwest

1

Doric : Belonging to the Dorians, a Greek people. The

term,^ Doric style, was first applied to the very few Roman

buildings and parts of buildings of which the basementstory

of the Theatre of Marcellns and that of the Colossenm at

Rome-are good instances. When the Grecian buildings of Athena, Girgenti and Paestum were studied, the term was extended to them;andthese give us what we call Grecian-Doric.

PLATE II.

PARTHENON, ATHENS, FROM THE NORTHEAST.

Ruins are not Works of Design

and from the northeast. This building by

the

highly elaborated in detail of all the Dorictemples of early time The Parthenon as

we see it now in its

decay, dominating thetown of Athens from the top of its rock or

looked at close at hand, lighted bythe

Gre-cian sun or by the moon forthose who are

romantically inclined, is unquestionably a

most picturesque and charming ruin

; it is

imposing in its mass, interesting still in its

im-measurably great tradition, historical and

poetic. That fact must not be forgotten for

not be forgotten that this admiration, this

enthusiasm, is not given to the work of art

It is not at all toproduce such a ruin as we

now see that the Grecian artistthought and

content: but be careful that you do notallow too much ofthis romantic association

to enter into yourlove oftheartisticentity,

of the lost Parthenon, which we have to

15

create out of the air, as it were And

be-ware of the admiration of ruins as youwould of the "tone" given to a picture by

time: it is not that which the artist

pro-posed to himself or even thought of, and it

for, always Thatis the first thing Until

you are sure you know that purpose, fully,

it will not do to find fault with the work

ofart, or even to praise it too unreservedly.

On the other hand, it is extremely portant to consider the probable, ancient

im-surroundings of the building in question

The upper figure ofPlate III mayshow, notonly the interesting building itself from a

good point of view and with its

peculiar-ities stronglyaccentuated (as is pointed outbelow); butalsohow, exceptforitssculptureand coloring^ the temple must have been

seen by the Athenians in the days ofConon The modern houses are very like

what the ancient houses must have been,

for, although the ancient houses had even

less door and window-opening upon the

street and more upon a court or yard, yet

[16]

The Theseion is More Than a Ruin

we mayimagine ourselves insuch a yardofantiquity, andthered-tiledroofs,thehome-

made chimney, the rough and unkempt

aspect of the whole may be assumed to

stand very well for the humbler quarters

of Athens in antiquity. This temple also

is a ruin : but the fact that, as seen in Plate

III, there are still visible the sculptures ofthe metopes,1

and the fact that the roofofthe pteroma2 is still in place, so that there

is no sunshine coming down behind thecolumns where sunshine was never meant

to be these conditions go far to give us a

peep at the building as it stood in thosegreat days No other photograph can give

a better idea of how the columns are set

closer near the corner; nor a better idea of

1

Metope : The word meansoriginallythe space between two

triglyphs (see definition of entablature) ; but is generally applied in

English writingtotheslab orblockof stonewhichfills this space in the Doric templesknownto us It is evident that the outer surface of this block was sometimespainted, and it is known that it was sometimes carved in low relief, as at Selinuntum, of whichtemple sculptured slabs arepreserved inthemuseumat Palermo; while those of the Theseion and the Parthenon were in very high relief.

2

Pteroma : The side or flank,hence, in modern usage,the space covered by the roof of a portico, and thereforeIncludingthe columns andintercolummations, althoughingeneralusage

it applies only to the passage between the columns and the wail Krt'UJip.d

[17]

the reasons for this peculiarity; for the sky

is seen between the columns at the right

hand; and the dark wall of the naos

the model Plate IV

Look back at Plate I, and Plate III,

upper figure, and note that these buildings

have six columns on the front instead ofeight and, therefore, according to the gen-

eral proportions of Greek temples, should

have a greater height relatively to width

than the Parthenon,PlateII. Note,farther,

that the columns are verymuch higherandmore slender in the octastyle2 Parthenon

than in the Italian hexastyle

3

building,

and the relative height ofthe entablature

4

Called also cellar the enclosed part of a Greek

temple, thatwhich has solid walls and maybe divided into

two or three rooms : also sometimes the larger of these divisions as distinguished from the Opisthodomos, orTreasury,2

sub-Octastyle : Having eight columns, when said of aportico;

haying eight columns infront,when said of atempleor similar building.

Some Diversity in the Doric Style

greater, or as one to two and a half in

Psestum, one to three in Athens TheDoric Order1

is capable of just about as

much diversity in relative heights andother dimensions as is shown here.

The comparatively short and thick

col-umns of the Italian temple are

characteris-tic of an earlier and less developed style

than that denoted l?y the higher and more

taken together as formingonepart of theorder The ture consists of architrave orepistyle,immediately above the columns, the frieze, and the cornice, each of which mayhave several decorative subdivisions Thus in the Ionic Order the epistyle maybe divided horizontally into three surfaces pro-jecting slightly more and more from the bottom upward The

entabla-frieze in the Doric style (Eoman or Greek) is divided by

triglyphs into metopes ; and in the other orders has often sculptured ornament The varieties of form in the cornice are very considerable. A triglyph is one of those blocks cut with vertical channels, which seem to rest upon theepistyleand to

support the cornice Themetopesare thespacesbetween ; and

also the non-structural slabs or blocks which fill those spaces.

In a veryfew instances the entablature is irregular in some

re-spect; thus the portico of Caryatides, PL VI, may be said to have no frieze, but epistyle and cornice only. In

Komanwork the whole entablature is occasionally arched up, bent to acurve, as inatempleat Baalbec, and as in apalaceat

1 Doric Order : In Greek and Eoman architecture,and in those neo-classic styles founded upon antiquity, theOrder is

the unit of design and consists of one complete column (shaft

andcapital,with base, if any, andpedestal,if any)andsomuch

of the entablature as maybe sufficient to show its whole

char-acter The Grecian Doric Order alluded to in the text, is

peculiar in the shape and number of the channels of theshaft,

in the echinos-shaped bell of thecapital, in the square and adorned abacus, in havingno base, in having the frieze broken

un-up into short lengths by thetriglyphs,and in the minor details

depending upontheabove.

slender columns ofthe Parthenon Inlike

manner the comparatively great thickness

of the superstructure in the Psestum

tem-ple, giving a very broad architrave,

1and a

still broader frieze2 is also suggestive ofan

earlier date. Now it isagreedthatthemore

lofty and slender proportions of the Order

of the Parthenon must have given to the

original building acharm beyondthatgiven

by the stumpy proportions of the PsBstumtemple : but it is alsoundeniablethatmany

lovers of architecture, of this as of otherepochs and styles, love especially the earlywork, that which is commonly known as archaic It is exactly like the great enthu-siasm excited in many students of Italian art by the earliest paintings, those of the

primitifs : in each case the very

single-minded and diligent work of the early men

has a charm peculiarly its own

Although the Parthenon is, as mentioned

above, a ruin and nothing else, there are

still to be found in the shattered stones of

1

Architrave: 2 Frieze: for these terms see footnote lature above.

Entab-[20]

in Doric Buildings

that ruin a certain partof that theoretical

beauty, thatimaginedglory of the destroyed

work of art, which we are gradually ing up in our thoughts. Thus it is in the

build-existing ruins that there have been

discov-ered those curious curves where straight

lines had been supposed to exist Ifyoustand at one end of the stylobatel

and lookalongit towards the other end, you will see

that it curves upward in the middle with adecided convex sweep. (See Plate III.) If

you raise yourselfon a scaffolding and lookalong the underside of the architrave you

will find that that also rises in a curve, notexactly parallel or concentric to that of the

stylobate, but nearly so. Furthermore you

will notice, if you walk about the templeand examine it closely, that the two outer-

most columns of the front are much nearertogether than the others, as noted above inPlate III: or that, in other words, the three

columns which form the corneraregrouped

1

Stylobate : Theflat,continuous surface upon which the umns stand, as in a colonnade. When the -whole flat surface forming the floor of the passageway (see Pteroma) is consid- ered, the word stereobate is employed.

col-[21]

much more closely than are the others.

Furthermore,it hasbeendiscovered by

min-ute measurements that these columns slope

inward a very little. Of course, it has

al-ways been known that the very visiblediminution of the shaft in thickness from

the bottom to the top is not according to

straight lines (that is to say7 thatthe shafts are not conical) but is according to a very

slow and hardlyperceptible curvewhich we

call the entasis. Great folios of carefully

drawn plates have beendevotedtothe exact

curvature ofthe entasis and to the more

re-cently discovered irregularities : and a

by which the whole amount of the

irregu-larity in any one case is now easily

ascer-tainable. This is one ofthemanyelementsout ofwhich we have tomake up our gen-

eral appreciation ofthebuilding, our

appre-ciation of the existence and the character

of these slopes, curves, risings, sinkings,slopings: all of them, it is clear, planned

in the most careful and elaborate way, and

as the result ofmany previous experiments,

[22]

The Purpose of Those RefinementsTheirobjectis,of course,toaddtothecharm

of the building, to give it in one case the

therefore very secure and permanent in

anothercase, to preventanypossible ance ofsagging or depression in the middle

appear-of the long horizontal lines; in another

case still, to substitute the subtile grace ofa

slight and almost imperceptible curve for

the harshness of a straight line Still

another thing is traceable in these ruins:

the unceasing care with which the workwas done, the way in which the separate

drums or solid blocks, ofwhich the shafts

of the columns are made up, were ground

together, one upon another, untiltheyfitted

with but the slightest visible or tangibleseparation The channelingorgrooving ofthe shafts was evidently done after thedrums had been put into place, and it is

highly probable that the bells

l

ofthe

capi-talswerealso finished, or received their final ,

1

Bell : Thatpart of the capital ofa colnmn which is between

the neckingbelow andthe abacus above The term is applied also to the imagined general form of the same member apart from the ornamentation ; thus the bell of a Corinthiancapitalis

to be traced beneath the acanthus leaves.

[23]

very delicate curvature, after the blocks out

ofwhich they had been cut had been set,and indeed after the superincumbentblock,the abacus, had been lowered upon eachone ofthem

Another feature in this remarkable sign is to be traced in the ruins, and was

de-much more plainly discoverable at an

ear-lier, though still recorded and well-known,

date: namely, the original painted

adorn-ment of the building, in strong primary

rough stone, like that in Plate I, there is

known to have been a thin coat of fine

plastering spread over the whole surface,and the final delicacy of curve and sharp-

ness of edge must have been wrought inthat plaster even more accurately than in

the stone beneath But in the Parthenon,

built entirely of fine-grained and hard

marble, no such coating was necessary, andthe paint was applied directly to the crys-

talline surface itself. This painting ered very large parts of the exterior, nor is

cov-it probable that any single foot of the

[24]

CURVATURE OP STYLOBATE OF PARTHENON

Buildings Were Painted

marble was left in its original whiteness

Where the solid coating of red or bluepaint not applied, the marble seems to

have been tinted a dull yellow, as bythe

application of wax to the surface, whichwax, if melted on with hot irons, would

act as a preservative for the marble. It

ap-pears then that all modern dreams aboutthe whiteness and purity and abstract love-

liness of the Grecian temples are mistaken

Browning's Artemis says that, always

ex-cepting Hera, she is

,the equal of any

god-dess of them all

"

surpassed

By none whosetemples whitenthis the world."

The Artemis; of any Greek poet wouldhave used a different phrase : to her, the

temples erected to the gods of Olympus

would not have seemed whiteobjects theywould have been to her the properlysacrifi- cial and devotional embodiment of all that

was splendid and gorgeous in the arts of

men at that time: sculptured marble and wrought metal indeed, but also color and

[25]

gold freely and even lavishly applied.

Plate IV is a photograph of the restoredmodel of the Parthenon which belongs to

the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New

York, the restoration of which, and the

whole work, is due to Charles Chipiez, a

well-known and very competent ologist in the direction of classical archi-

archae-tecture. But this restoration is extremely

reserved and quiet; it assumes almost ing; it is restrained quite beyond what is

noth-to be expected of a modern enthusiast in

Greek art. If, instead of this, we were to

study the careful and conscientious

draw-ings published by that French student who

has made a special study of the buildings

in Epidauros (Alphonse de Frasse) or in

Olympia (Victor Laloux) we should findthe decoration by means of painting and

by the application of golden shields orother members in gilt metal, assumed as

very much more elaborate and rich. Thus

the restored fagade of the temple of

Ascle-pios at Epidauros and that of the temple of

Zeus at Olympia are shown as having been

[26]

painted in the most elaborate way, with

figure subjects of conventionalized form and distribution on all the larger flat sur-

scroll-work on the small ones It is known that

very rich mosaic floors existed in many ofthese cases, and known also that the ceil-

ings, such as those above the open galleries

(pteroma) behind the great colonnades,

were adorned very richly, sometimes with

painted and gilded terra cotta.

There is still to be considered the tured ornament, painted, indeed, in vivid

sculp-colors, but also planned with care, andexecuted with vast knowledge, minute

leaf-sculpture, no scroll-work, no carved

ornaments of any sort : we shall find a

dif-ferent condition of things in the Ionic

costlyParthenontherewere onlythehuman

and animal forms, expressed in statues

[27]

had none of this : others had the metopes

carved with high reliefs : others had reliefs

in the great triangular panel of the

pedi-ment:

x

others again had this panel filled

with statues, standing and seated, forming

a group, and expressing some legend of

Greek historical and religious life.

Fi-nally, there are instances of long unbrokenbands of sculpture in very low relief. TheParthenon had all of these: a horizontal

band along the top ofeach wall ofthe naos

metopes, statues in both pediments

If, then, our opinion of ancient Greek

architecture is to be formed, and arelative

judgment ofany two fine specimens of it is

to be reached, we have to study with some

and character when intact. What statues

panels, or bas-reliefs in long and narrow

1

Pediment : Thetriangularwall at the end of the lowpitched

roof, in a Greek orRomanbuilding. Thesunkenpanelalone,above the horizontal cornice and beneath the raking cornice, is

called the Tympanum, or, in Greektemples, often the Aetos

('arnJf) orEagle.

[28]

The Sculpture of Doric Buildings

strips? Of what value were these tures to the general effect ofthestructure?What seem to have been the proportions

sculp-of the building? If we can call up animage of it before the mind, is this animage of perfect proportion, or is it clear

that greater height or other change in mension would have been an advantage?

di-It is true that we generally accept Greek

buildings of the best time as faultless : but

it is also true that there were great

differ-ences among them. The hexastyle temple

is necessarily more high and more narrowthan the octastyle building. If we con-sider that the temple with, six columns at

each end has only thirteen on each side

(that is, eleven without counting the cornercolumns whWi form part of the two fronts)

while the wider Parthenon has seventeen

columns on each side, we find that thecomparative height of the temple of Posei-don at Psestum, or of Zeus at Olympia, or

of Athena at Sunion, is very much greater

when seen from one corner, in perspective,than that of the Athens temple. Suppose

[29]

that we trace from Plate IVso much of thecolonnade as will leave out two of the endcolumns and four of those on theflank, andthen put a corresponding pediment and en-

tablature,which proportion shallwe prefer?Which building is nearer to perfection?

The Parthenon,, as the very flower and

glory of Greece? If so, why was the

hex-astyle form so very much more common?

Thereisonlyoneother octastyleDoric

tem-ple known: and, if it be said as an

ex-planation, that of course the heights of

col-umn and entablature would be varied for

the change from the 8x17 peristyle to the

6x13 type, the question still remains for uswas it practicable to make an octastyletemple as perfect in proportion as werenumerous hexastyle examples, large and

small, scattered over Greece, Southern Italyand Sicily? These doubts are suggested inorder that the reader may see in this com-mencement ofhis studies what kind ofun-

settled and never to be settled questions

will come before him at every step of hisinquiry He will be equally uncertain

[30]